Israel-Hamas Cease-fire Fails, Airstrikes and Rocket Attacks Resume
Egypt's proposal for an Israel-Hamas cease-fire fell apart today after Israel resumed airstrikes on Gaza in response to Hamas's rocket attacks. Israeli officials say the rocket attacks never actually stopped, and Gaza officials claim at least one Palestinian was injured in an airstrike during the supposed cease-fire.
On Tuesday, hospital officials in Gaza said they had admitted a man wounded in an Israeli strike after the cease-fire was supposed to have started at 9 a.m. Lying on a stretcher at Shifa Hospital, the patient, Mahmoud Muhanna, 26, said he had been riding a motorbike to check on his family's summer cottage when an explosion flung him through the air; he cracked his head on the pavement.
He was admitted around noon, doctors said, and he said the explosion took place sometime after 11 a.m., although the Israeli military said it resumed its attacks only hours later; it was possible he was hit by an errant rocket fired from Gaza.
Though Israel embraced Egypt's plan for a cease-fire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear Israel would resume airstrikes if Hamas didn't stop firing rockets. Hamas never officially responded to the Egyptian proposal, claiming officials were still "consulting."
Palestinians in Gaza expressed hopelessness about any cease-fire proposal. Wedad al-Jarba, who has been caring for her injured 2-year-old grandson, told the Times, "Every time they have a cease-fire, but then everything comes back: the siege, the closures. [Israel] never agreed on anything real."
Secretary of State John Kerry, who supported the Egyptian proposal, has postponed a trip to the region to see if Egypt can still broker a deal. "The Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire and negotiations provides an opportunity to end the violence and restore calm," he said.
CNN reports that 194 Palestinians have been killed and 1,400 have been wounded in the conflict so far. The death toll now exceeds the number of people killed in the Israeli-Hamas conflict of 2012.
[Image via AP]